Billing with a RADIUS accounting server

For the purposes of billing via a RADIUS server, you can set up the Public Spot so that it regularly supplies the current connection information for every active user to the specified accounting server. Accounting is started when a client is authenticated using RADIUS and a valid Accounting server is configured for the relevant Authentication server in the list of Authentication servers. It is possible to use different RADIUS servers for authentication and accounting.

Each of the regular message packets to the accounting server contains information about the resources (time, transferred data volumes, etc.) consumed by the user since the last message. This means that, even in the worst case of a Public Spot failure (e.g., due to a power outage or similar), only a small amount of accounting information will be lost.

Periodic messaging of accounting information to the accounting server (interim updates) is deactivated by default. It is activated by setting a value for the accounting cycle which is greater than 0.

LANconfig: Public Spot > Users > Accounting update cycle

Note: This cycle is defined in seconds. This sets the time interval of when your device regularly sends connection information to the accounting server. Setting the cycle to 0 deactivates this function. If this is the case, your device only sends accounting information at the beginning and end of the session.

When accounting on a prepaid basis, the RADIUS server monitors the restrictions on the users (limits on connection times or transfer volumes, expiry date). As soon as a user has used up the prepaid amount, the RADIUS server locks the user account. Your device rejects future login attempts for the user.

Note: Time limits for prepaid models can be monitored by the Public Spot during active sessions. If a time limit is exceeded, the Public Spot automatically terminates the corresponding session. The monitoring of prepaid amounts is possible if the RADIUS server transmits the user's time credit to the Public Spot as the "Session timeout" attribute at the start of the session.